HEADLINES
Northwest selects
EVS developers
for 747/DC10
Northwest Airlines has con firmed its selection of
GEC Avionics, Rockwell-Col
lins and Sextant Avionique to
develop prototype enhanced
vision systems (EVS) for Boeing
747s and McDonnell Douglas
DC-lOs Flight International,
22-28 January). The carrier
hopes to certificate EVS-
equipped aircraft for Category
Ilia low-visibility operations.
The airline says it will select
one vendor in the second half
of 1992 to continue develop
ment, with a view to retrofit
ting its 747s and DC-lOs with
head-up displays (HUD) ini
tially and with imaging sensors
later to produce an EVS ena
bling take-offs and landings in
low visibility. Northwest will
review the "economic viability"
of retrofitting its aircraft as
development continues.
Northwest plans to test the
selected systems in flight
simulators before installing its
chosen HUD in a DC-10 and
747 for certification flight tests.
Maryland Advanced Develop
ment Laboratory (MADL) is
supporting the progamme with
simulations and flight tests of
prototype displays and sensors
on its Cessna 402 testbed.
The carrier's 747-200s and
DC-10s are restricted to Cat I
operations. Adding the HUD
should allow Cat Ilia oper
ations at suitably equipped air
ports. The addition of an infra
red or radar-imaging sensor is
expected to allow Cat Ilia
operations at Cat II- and, possi
bly, Cat I-equipped runways.
The GEC Avionics civil HUD
has been installed in a
Gulfstream II for US Federal
Aviation Administration tests of
a synthetic-vision system and
the company has teamed with
Honeywell on EVS and en
hanced situational-awareness
systems. Collins is offering a
HUD developed by Kaiser Elec
tronics. Sextant's HUD is
scheduled to fly in MADL's
Cessna 402 by mid-1992. •
See news, P 9.
Regioliner delay is key
to Fokker take-over
BY DOUGLAS BARR1E
IN MUNICH
Deutsche Aerospace (DASA) is negotiating to buy a ma
jority stake in its Dutch rival
Fokker, but any sale is depend
ent on DASA agreeing to delay
the launch of its Regioliner fam
ily by several years.
Fokker has said that a deal
was possible only if DASA
dropped the Regioliner alto
gether as it clashes with the
proposed Fokker 70 and Fokker
130 regional-jet programmes.
Sources close to the negotia
tions now indicate that Fokker
has moderated its position, say
ing: "Fokker is suggesting to
DASA that it gets a majority
stake, but only on the condition
that they postpone Regioliner by
at least three years."
This would allow Fokker to
establish the Fokker 70 (on
which DASA would like to par
ticipate) in the market before
the Regioliner. Industry sources
indicate that Fokker would then
participate fully in the develop
ment of the Regioliner family.
DASA says its "...aim is a
broad industrial co-operation in
the field of aircraft manufacture;
it's not just the Fokker 70/130
— we're talking of a broader
link. We're trying to put to
gether an industrial concept."
DASA admits that this "indus
trial concept" includes "a possi
ble take-over by Deutsche
Aerospace." It also says that if
the talks are successful then as
far as Regioliner is concerned
"...there could be a time lag of
some years, say from 1996
to 2000."
Originally, the Regioliner R92
was pencilled in for launch in
1996 and the R122 in 1999; the
R122 launch could now slip to
around 2004.
DASA remains adamant that,
even if it forges close industrial
and financial links with Fokker,
its original Regioliner partners,
Aerospatiale and Alenia, will not
be left out in the cold.
"We will remain with Aero
spatiale and Alenia; we will not
forget our other partners. We are
acting for them on this and they
are behind us."
Fokker declines to comment
on the negotiations. •
Sukhoi moves to complete Gulf deal
Russia is close to signing a contract to deliver Sukhoi
attack aircraft to the United
Arab Emirates (UAE), according
to the Russian newspaper, Izves-
tiva. The deal was negotiated
during a recent visit to six Gulf
states by Andrei Kozyrev, the
Russian foreign minister.
The newspaper does not iden
tify the aircraft type, but sources
close to the company say it is
the Su-25TK, the new anti-tank
export version of the aircraft
demonstrated at the Dubai Air
Show in November 1991.
Speaking about the visit, Ko
zyrev says: "I am not shielding
the fact that this visit was a
move in a struggle for markets,
including the arms market. We
have developed a huge military-
industrial complex and now
profitable markets for exporting
Russian arms have to be found."
Kozyrev refuses to provide de
tails of future arms sales.
The main armament of the
new aircraft comprises 15 Vikhr
anti-tank laser beam-riding mis
siles. The aircraft can also carry
other air-to-surface weapons.
The Su-25TK fly-away price
could be $15-20 million. •
Su-25TK could become permanent fixture in the Gulf
CIA spy data released
The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and environ
mental experts are co-ordinat
ing the release of an archive of
30 years of classified spy-
satellite images in a bid to aid
the study of changes in the
Earth's atmosphere.
The CIA will release images
for environmental studies
"...provided no state secrets are
revealed". The release of im
ages from U-2 and SR-71 spy
aircraft is also being consid
ered.
The archive is important be
cause establishing environ
mental trends requires about
30 years of data. In the shorter
term, images from infra-red
early-warning satellites can
provide information about
water vapour and cloud den
sity in the atmosphere.
Spy-satellite data would
complement information de
rived from several meteorologi
cal and environmental space
craft and would be particularly
useful to monitor gas emis
sions and global warming. •
J FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 13-19 MAY 1992